the limestone rock which is plentiful in these hills. The dwell- ings usually form three sides of a square; but I will describe the interior accommodation in more detail further on in my nar- rative. Only two articles in any of the Pepohoan settlements bore tokens of ingenuity and mechanical skill; these were the butts of their matchlocks and a native rat-trap, which was very curious indeed. The rat is esteemed a great luxury among the mountaineers — so great that the invention of this trap must have been a most important event in the history of their race.
Friday, April ii. — We left Poah-be at 7 a.m. to-day to walk to Baksa, twelve miles off. It was a beautiful morning, and the scenery gradually became so interesting as to warrant the belief that we had now got clear of the broken shifting lands through which our yesterday's journey had extended. By about ten o'clock the heat became intense, and Ahong was fairly knocked up. We had to reduce our pace, too, on account of his sorely blistered feet, so that it was twelve o'clock before we reached Baksa valley. Here again the people came out to welcome us, shouting '*Peng-gan," ^'Peace be with you," while many a horny hand was stretched out from its toil to grasp the doctor's as we entered the village, or rather as we passed through the lanes, and beneath the palms that shaded the scattered dwellings in this Pepohoan paradise. I could now understand what the Portuguese meant when they named the island Formosa; and yet what we saw here was but the foreshadowing of the wilder grandeur of the mountain scenery inland. A crescent of lime- stone hills sweeps round Baksa valley, presenting in many places a bare rocky front in striking contrast to the foliage which luxuriates elsewhere. Perhaps the bamboos where the most remarkable feature in the scene, for these plants here attain exceptional proportions and are, some of them, more than 100
